The best aesthetic for pretty much any dish is a pile of delicious food. If you're a proud member of the clean plate club, however, revealing a purdy pattern beneath your meal is a nice touch at the end of dinner. Dutch designer David Derksen used an acrylic paint-filled pendulum to give his Oscillation series an intricate swooping design, with an assist from that old earthly standby—gravity.

Each piece in the swinging set is completely one-of-a-kind. Derksen would set the custom-made brass device in motion, let it sway, then nudge it again in a different direction. Based on the placement of the tableware below, a range of jet-black arcs would emerge. Plus, it seems like an artistic bonus is the paper that gets the extra ink, which would look neat chopped up and framed on a wall. The process vid is mesmerizing; maybe not quite as captivating as a full turkey dinner, but still fun to watch. [David Derksen via Dezeen]